laying

MindsEye developer Build a Rocket Boy is preparing for a round of layoffs after the rough launch of its debut game, according to a new report from IGN. An anonymous source told the outlet there’s no definitive number yet as to how many people the studio is laying off, but it could be 100 or more.

UK labor law states that an employer that is proposing 20 or more redundancies at one “establishment” within 90 days must go through a process of collective redundancy consultation before the redundancies can go ahead. This means informing and consulting appropriate representatives of the affected employees to allow them to meet with the employer. This consultation must begin at least 30 days before the first dismissal (for cases of under 100 dismissals), or 45 days before (for more than 100 dismissals). According to the anonymous source, for Build a Rocket Boy’s case, a 45-day consultation period began on Monday, June 23. According to IGN’s report, Build a Rocket Boy has roughly 300 employees in the UK, so a third or more of its UK workforce may get laid off. The studio also employs about 200 people outside of the UK, and it’s unclear at this time if they’ll be affected as well.

MindsEye originally began as a game inside Build a Rocket Boy’s Roblox-like platform, Everywhere. That content platform isn’t out yet, and, with the studio’s impending layoffs, it’s unknown what the future holds for it.

MindsEye is out now for PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X.

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Playtonic, the creators of Yooka-Laylee, is laying off some of its staff, the developer and publisher announced on social media. The post doesn’t mention how many members of Playtonic will be effected, but does credit the layoffs to the company’s struggle with “a period of profound change in how games are created and funded.”

Based on a LinkedIn post shared by Playtonic brand manager Anni Valkama, the layoffs include staff members who worked in production, various art departments, game design, narrative design and UI/UX design. Playtonic only lists around 50 staff members on LinkedIn, but given the studios growth into a publisher and its upcoming release of Yooka-Replaylee, its possible the actual team is a bit larger.

While Playtonic likely isn’t safe from the problems of funding and selling games that other developers have, hiring up for a new project like Yooka-Replaylee and then laying those new hires off before the game is released is a fairly common practice. There’s no way to know if that’s the case here without more information, but it’s worth stating.

Yooka-Laylee was pitched as a spiritual sequel to Banjo-Kazooie and other character-focused action-platformers when it debuted on Kickstarter in 2015, perhaps unsurprising given that Playtonic was founded by former developers from Rare, the creators of Banjo-Kazooie and newer hits like Sea of Thieves. In fact, many of the games Playtonic has published under its “Playtonic Friends” publishing label fall in that Rare sweet spot, whether its the cute action-adventure game Lil Gator Game or the difficult platformer Demon Turf.

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MindsEye developer Build a Rocket Boy reportedly laying off at least 100 employees

Yooka-Laylee developer Playtonic is laying off over a dozen staff